Richard Cary Morse was born into a religiously and socially conservative New England family well known for its intellectual contributions to American life. His grandfather, Jedediah Morse (1761-1826), was the first of many Morse men to attend Yale, helped to found Andover Theological Seminary, and authored the earliest American geography. He was a staunchly orthodox Congregational minister, ardent Federalist, and active evangelist, and advanced his views by writing and editing conservative religious and political periodicals and helping to establish the American Tract Society and American Bible Society.

Jedediah Morse's three sons, Samuel Finley Breese, Sidney Edwards, and Richard Cary, followed their father's lead, but emphasized different aspects of the Morse intellectual and religious tradition in their individual careers. With his work in telegraphy and photography and his career as a painter and advocate of the arts Samuel F.B. Morse pioneered in both the scientific and artistic fields. He perpetuated the family's aggressively conservative political and religious tradition with his involvement in anti-Catholic and nativist movements. Samuel Morse's eminent career overshadows the achievements of his two brothers, though each was successful in his own right. Sidney Edwards Morse was also an accomplished scientist and inventor, collaborating with Samuel on a pump design, working with Henry Munson in the development of a color printing process, and inventing the bathometer for sea exploration. He continued Jedediah Morse's geographical work and, at his father's suggestion, furthered the cause of conservative Protestantism by establishing religious newspapers in Boston and New York.

Third brother Richard pursued no scientific endeavors. After attending Yale and the Andover Theological Seminary he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister, but occupied the pulpit for only a few years before joining his father to help with geographical texts. In 1823 he moved to New York to join brother Sidney in founding the New York Observer, where he specialized in editing, writing, and translating French and German contributions. Richard Morse's more modest career may be explained in part by the early death of his wife, the former Sarah Louisa Davis, and the responsibility of raising nine children. He remarried in 1856, but one senses from family correspondence that his second wife, Harriot Messinger Morse, did not take a central role in child-raising Morse was a nervous, worry-driven man, and suffered from depression and stomach ailments all his adult life. His symptoms were eased by ocean travel, so he made frequent business and pleasure trips to Europe and occasionally took voyages solely for health reasons. Regret that he had been unable to pursue a career of theological scholarship seems to have been a central factor in his unhappiness. In his later years, after retiring from the Observer, Morse concentrated on a biography of his father, working in conjunction with William Buell Sprague, the noted biographer of American clergymen. Unable to resolve questions over interpretation of incidents in his father's life, Morse never brought the project to completion.

Richard Cary Morse, the second, appears to have been marked early on as the scholar of the family. He started school at age four and was sent to a boarding school in New Jersey at six. The boy's precocious intellectual bent was encouraged by Morse senior, who took his son to France with him on Observer business in 1851, the year after Mrs. Morse's death. Here they stayed with religious historian Guy de Felice, a regular contributor to the newspaper and co-author with Morse of publications on French literary and religious history, and young Richard studied the French language. Taking note of the difficulties brother Sidney had had at Yale after a public school education, Richard persuaded his father to send him to Andover Academy in 1853. He remained one term, then joined three sisters and a brother at boarding school in Connecticut for two years while Morse senior was abroad on business. Returning to Andover, he graduated in 1858, then entered Yale. Young Morse was a strong student and an avid participant in debate and athletics at Andover and Yale, and at both schools formed a strong, close circle of friends.

Religious activities were also a central part of Morse's school years, for his father insisted on regular church attendance and encouraged religious reading. He also expected his son to choose his friends carefully and to seek the company and advice of good Christians. As an adult Morse wrote that he had wanted to become a minister since childhood (a desire no doubt fostered by awareness that this would please his father), but that "my Christian life for some years was not a very happy one." The boy lacked faith in his vocation and felt ill-equipped in the writing and speaking skills he deemed necessary for a minister. At Yale he actively set out to address these weaknesses, engaging in debate and oratory, taking part in prayer meetings and Sunday School teaching. Once Richard had decided upon a religious calling, it became a settled matter in the eyes of his father and stepmother. When the Civil War began, the young man's religious convictions took a back seat to patriotic fervor, and he ardently desired to join Yale classmates who were enlisting. His parents firmly forbade it, insisting that he was meant for a higher purpose, and eventually, after heated interchanges, their views prevailed. The angry tenor of the correspondence indicates that relations between the two Richards became strained, and were perhaps permanently altered. In his autobiography Morse terms the decision "one of the most serious disappointments of my life," although he maintains that he eventually came to see it as "providential." The published version of Morse's life smoothes over stresses and strains expressed more openly in his letters, so an admission of disappointment in print indicates that it must have been a heavy blow indeed.

After graduating from Yale in 1862 Richard joined his father (with some reluctance, based on the evidence of correspondence) for a year of research on a Jedediah Morse biography which was to be written by William Buell Sprague. He then spent two years in Auburn, New York as private tutor for the family of Throop Martin, followed by two years of study at the Princeton and Union theological seminaries. He received degrees from both institutions in 1867. Meanwhile, ownership of the New York Observer had passed from the elder Morse brothers to Richard Cary Morse's son, the second Sidney Edwards Morse, and to Samuel Iranaeus Prine. Richard was offered an assistant editorship, and decided that religious journalism would serve as a fit beginning for his ministerial career. In October, 1867, Morse was sent to cover a YMCA convention for the Observer, and was much impressed by the "evangelistic enthusiasm" of the speakers, especially Dwight Moody. Soon afterward he joined the association, and in 1869 was asked to take a new position as YMCA secretary and editor, taking charge of a quarterly magazine. This began a 47-year career which culminated in the position of national YMCA general secretary. In this capacity Morse traveled the world to help extend YMCA influence and prepared works on the organization's history. Though ordained in 1869, Richard Morse never served as a minister. The YMCA was to be his calling and the central activity of his life. He married Jane Elizabeth Van Cott at 42, had no children, and died in Brooklyn, New York in 1926.

Probably in response to the early death of their mother, the Morse children -- Elizabeth, Charlotte, Louisa, Sidney, Mary, Richard, Rebecca, William, and Oliver -- became a close-knit brood, and the eldest took it upon themselves to act as guardians and advisers for younger siblings. Elizabeth Morse Colgate, the oldest, was especially influential; her brother lovingly refers to her as our "mother-sister" in his autobiography, and notes that for 42 years "her home was the home of all of us." This was the case despite their father's remarriage (which is not even mentioned in Morse junior's autobiography), for relations between children and stepmother appear to have been less than fond, in turn affecting the ties between the younger Morses and their father. Being sent away to boarding school probably also strengthened sibling ties. The elder Morse believed that New York City, though he was bound to live there for business reasons, was an unhealthy place for children, and that they could attain a superior education only in private schools. (He reneged somewhat on this practice with the two youngest boys, pulling them out of boarding school in favor of public school in New York; poor financial conditions probably had as much to do with this decision as educational concerns.) They attended a school in Hartford, Connecticut run by Miss E.D. Apthorp, a sister-in-law of Horace Bushnell. This was evidently a progressive educational institution, for its curriculum combined elements of an English and a classical education along with an emphasis on the practical and the healthful, such as gardening and working with tools. The Morse girls' education seems to have ended after graduation from Miss Apthorp's school in the early teens, while the boys, following family tradition, went on to Andover Academy for a full college preparatory education, and then to Yale. The political liberalism of these New England institutions concerned, and often downright irritated, the conservative elder Morse -- he was later to express regret that he had sent his children away to be educated in a way which would lead to disrespect for him. Son Richard, however, appears to have passed through his rebellious stage and settled back into the essential Morse respectability and conservatism.

Scope and contents:

About half of the correspondence in the Morse papers consists of letters between father and son, written mainly while Richard junior was at Andover and Yale. The senior Morse insisted that the boy write often and at length as a way of maintaining a close relationship with his family, describing academic and recreational activities, expressing his opinions on all sorts of matters, recording the substance of sermons and lectures he attended. His own letters to his son were similarly detailed. The correspondence is a particularly rich source of data on the content and tenor of conservative Protestant preaching during this era, as well as on details of a classical private education. Perhaps its greatest value, however, is as a record of the father-son relationship and the changes it went through as Richard junior matured. It shows how the young man gradually took on his own opinions and tastes, and became less shy about expressing them even when they brought him into disagreement with his father -- who was clearly a strongly opinionated and very controlling parent. (He advises his son minutely on food, exercise, study, religious practice, dress, companionship, sleep habits, reading, career choice, etc.) Richard's New England experience brought him into contact with liberal political and social views which were much at odds with Morse conservatism, and while he never strayed very far from the fold, his conservatism became more tempered than his father's, his perspective broader and outlook more flexible. The letters record the process of this separation and personal development.

The 100-odd letters to and from siblings are briefer, less revealing, though far from rote and mechanical. They depict warm affection between brothers and sisters and the protective, advising role taken on by elder toward younger. Those from older sisters at home show the busy doings of the New York household and the many comings and goings of various family members, for the Morses were great travelers, both in America and abroad. Eldest sister Elizabeth Morse Colgate wrote especially detailed and loving letters, advising Richard on matters of clothing, manners, and general behavior and catching him up on family activities. Brother Sidney offered his opinions on conduct appropriate to young men, and especially advised Richard on matters of academics and personal finances. Older sister Charlotte seems to have styled herself as a religious guide for her younger brother, while Mary and Louisa occupy a less prominent role with regard to Richard, at least as expressed in surviving family correspondence. Richard, in turn, looked out for those who came after him, and his younger sister Rebecca and brothers Willie and Nollie sought his advice on all kinds of matters, from politics to reading choices to composition themes.

Harriott Messinger Morse does not seem to have developed a close relationship with stepson Richard, and this eventually led to strained feelings between father and son, for he blamed Richard for the failure. A few later letters between siblings indicate that the other Morse children had their problems with her as well, and the father seems to have responded with some bitterness toward his children and the sad results of their "liberal" education. In Richard's case, particularly, there may have been some truth in this, for the boy developed a close relationship with Miss E.D. Apthorp, a fervent abolitionist, during his education at her Hartford school which continued into his college years. The Morse Papers contain 7 letters to Richard from Apthorp, only 4 from his stepmother--and the Apthorp letters are far warmer, more personal and engaging. Richard's former teacher encouraged him in his efforts to enter the Civil War service, in open opposition to his parents' wishes.

Relations between the Richard Cary Morse household and the families of Samuel F.B. and Sidney Morse are touched upon but not detailed in the collection. There was evidently frequent communication and visiting back and forth, especially among the young women, and the two younger brothers and their families shared the same New York City house for some years. A few letters mention "Uncle Finley's" (Samuel F.B. Morse) travels, activities, and honors, but there is no direct correspondence with him or his family in these papers.

Richard's letters from friends during and just after college make up a valuable component of this collection. They depict the nature of male friendship, and the sorts of interests, concerns and activities typical of young men of this social class during the era. They are open with one another about loneliness, religious doubts, and other personal matters. Since the Civil War erupted during Morse's college years, young men faced difficult decisions and pressures which led them into vastly different experiences. Richard felt guilty about avoiding war duty, and conscientiously tried to keep in touch with those who went into the army. Other friends also opted out of service, expressing varying degrees of remorse over their decisions. There are a few letters from former classmates in military camp, and others which tell of friends in the service, several of whom died.

There are several small subsets of correspondence pertaining to non-family matters. Seven letters between Richard Morse senior and Guillaume de Felice offer a few details about social and religious conditions in France, the publishing business, and the conservative religious tone of the New York Observer, which regularly published pieces by Felice. A series of letters between clergyman, religious writer, and autograph collector William Buell Sprague (1795-1876) and the two Morse brothers involved in the Observer records the difficult relations which developed between Sprague and the Morses during his work on a biography of Jedediah Morse. One controversy touched upon in a few 1858 letters is the accusation by the Morses that Sprague, without their permission, removed autographs from letters given to him in relation to the biographical work. He vigorously denied this, and the truth of the matter is not evident from the correspondence. A more complicated and extended dispute, in 1867, revolved around the treatment by Sprague in the biography of a scandal in Jedediah Morse's career involving accusations of plagiarism of work by Hannah Adams. Adams was a Unitarian, Morse a well-known and fervent anti-Unitarian, and his condemnation, some felt, was more related to his religious views and former attacks on Unitarianism than the actual merits of Adams' case. Sprague wished to avoid reopening the issue, Sidney Morse felt strongly that his father should be vindicated in the biography, and Richard senior wavered back and forth indecisively, increasing Sprague's discomfort level. The arguing and negotiating goes on at great length, and evidently to no end, for the project was abandoned after being all but ready for press.

The Morses, with their impressive intellectual tradition and high level of education and sophistication, could hardly be considered a typical family of the time, particularly since their religious orientation, anti-urban sentiments, and lack of wealth kept them somewhat isolated from the general upper-class New York scene. This very difference contributes interest to the collection, for Richard Morse was not a typical wealthy young Yale man on his way to an illustrious career. He struggled with strongly conservative family traditions and parental opinions that were often at odds with what he encountered in his own experience, and which he wished at times to defy. In the end, Richard Cary Morse was decidedly a Morse, abandoning youthful doubts and contrary ambitions for a life of religious service, but in a form which reflected the strong influence of his school and college years -- by devoting himself to an organization formed to encourage the fellowship of Christian young men.

Related materials:

A collection of Morse Family Papers owned by Sterling Memorial Library of Yale University contains a miscellany of family materials, mostly by or relating to Jedediah Morse. A box of letters from Richard Cary Morse senior to family members is included, as well as some letters of Sarah Davis Morse, and a manuscript copy of the Jedediah Morse biography by the two Richard Morses.

References:

Morse, Richard Cary. My Life With Young Men. Fifty Years in the Young men's Christian Association. New York, N.Y. : Association Press, 1918. (All quotes are from this source.)

Morse, Richard Cary. Fifty Years of Federation of the Young Men's Christian Associations of North America. New York, N.Y.: YMCA, 1905.

M-2531
cat. 6/94 sms

Subject index to the Richard Cary Morse Papers

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